What’s the real gender pay gap?

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“Still, if women were paid a fifth less for doing the same work as men, there would be pervasive discrimination. That’s how the pay gap is interpreted by many. They demand “equal pay for equal work.” But that’s not what the pay gap shows. It’s simply the ratio of women’s average hourly pay to men’s average hourly pay. The jobs in the comparison are not the same, and when these differences are taken into account, the ratio of women’s pay to men’s rises to almost 92 percent from 79 percent, say Blau and Kahn.

Specifically, they identify two major differences between women’s and men’s employment patterns. First, despite advances, women remain more concentrated than men in lower-paying industries and occupations. They work disproportionately as health-care aides, receptionists, cashiers and food servers. This drags down women’s average wages. The second big difference is that women still have slightly less on-the-job experience than men. This, too, lowers their average wages.

After all the adjustments, the remaining 8-percentage-point unexplained gender gap could reflect discrimination, write Blau and Kahn, pointing to academic studies. In one, when five symphony orchestras shifted to blind auditions, with candidates’ identities unknown, women’s success rates shot up. In another study, men and women with similar résumés applied for waitstaff jobs at high-priced restaurants; women’s job offers were 50 percent lower than men’s.

But the persisting gap could have other causes. There’s “the motherhood wage penalty”: Women bear the greatest responsibilities for child-rearing. Careers are interrupted; even when employers allow greater job flexibility, incomes and advancement prospects suffer.

Men can continue climbing career ladders, while many women are stalled or stopped. That’s one reason wage gaps between men and women are greatest among the best-paid workers, say Blau and Kahn. It also helps explain why there are so few female chief executives: about 4 percent of Fortune 500 firms employ them. On the other hand, the pleasures and duties of being a parent often dwarf on-the-job rewards. Either way, hard economic and emotional choices often can’t be avoided.
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